Wild Kratts: Power of Nature - Episode 36 - The Wild Catts
by Taismo-89
Summary: Collab with Soul Rider. The crew received reports of disappearing wildcat cubs from Wild Kratts Kids. When they investigate, they find Gourmand planning to turn the cat kids into a feline buffet. But luckily, friendships are made between the cubs as they plan their own escape.


Chris and Martin were in their Peregrine Falcon suits withy Mina riding on Chris's shoulders. They were currently flying over the African Savannah.

"_Grass, grass, grass, tree,_" the nymph chimed.

"_Just the life for you and me!_" the brothers finished. The three siblings laughed.

"Can't wait to see He-Who-Breathes-Fire. Or...wait, what was his name in Swahili again?" Mina asked.

"Ane Pumuwa Moto."

"Doesn't sound anything like his translated name."

"It sure doesn't."

"Still prefer He-Who-Breathes-Fire. It's easier to pronounce."

"We're here," Martin announced.

The Kratts landed a couple of meters from some rocks.

"Hey, something's not right," Chris commented. "No one is home."

"Unless they're on the hunt," Martin guessed.

"True. The six cubs were around that age where they can join the pride on a hunt."

"Hey! I think I see some lions coming this way!" Mina pointed out over the Savannah. They were definitely lions. Two were lionesses and the one in front was a male. But something was wrong. No young lions were following them. The three grown lions looked around their home frantically.

"Where are the cubs?"

"I think they're who the adults are looking for," Martin answered her.

"Guys!" Aviva called on their Creature Pods. Chris answered his first and image came up. "We just got some reports from local Wild Kratts Kids and even Nina in Central America that some of the wildcat cubs and kittens have disappeared!" They gasped.

"Which ones?" Martin asked.

"Spot Swat, Shadow, Hangtime's kittens, and you might have just noticed that He-Who-Breathes-Fire's cubs are missing from the pride."

"Yeah, they just came back and they look really worried," Mina told her.

Mina tried approaching them. At first, the lionesses growled at their presence, but He-Who-Breathes-Fire stopped them, recognizing the Kratt Brothers.

The bros got out their medallions and activated them.

"Ane Pumuwa Moto!" Martin greeted. The leader casually came up to them.

"Hello, Leaders of the Kratt Pride," he responded. At first, they stood there surprised.

"Is that what you call them?" Mina asked the lion.

"Precisely. They helped me in returning to help the lionesses and the cubs." The lion explained. "According to them, I had a "bad hair day"."

Both male siblings blushed in embarrassment and chuckled nervously.

"Oh, I remember that from the WK Diary. That's what the adventure was called." He chuckled in amusement.

"I can see why. But we have more important matters on our hands."

"We can see that," Chris told the leader. "What happened to your cubs?"

"Some... thing in white was scurrying by, but we didn't pay much attention. Before we knew it, all six were gone."

"Thing in white?" Martin asked.

"I saw it was a human. A big-nosed one with a crazy voice," one of the lionesses said.

"Gourmand!" Mina, Martin and Chris exclaimed.

* * *

Meanwhile, Gourmand trapped his new acquisitions in cages.

"Six little kitties fresh for me, six more kitties for my delicacy!" the chef sang. In three smaller cages nearby were other preteen cubs. One was a cheetah, another was black jaguar and in the same cage were two caracal kittens. "Ten little kittens plucked today, so many for my feline buffet!" He laughed evilly. The cheetah preteen tried clawing him when he got close, but Gourmand dodged. "Woah! You're really full of energy and flavor! I'll make sure to cook you for my appetizers!" Spot Swat growled in protest as the chef left the room.

"No way am I going on any menu!" the teenage speedster snarled. The black jaguar laying on his stomach stared at him.

"You say that like you have a plan," Shadow deadpanned. Spot Swat glared at him.

"And what are you supposed to be? A fat, black leopard?" The Caracal Twins went to as close to the exit of the cage as they can, wondering what's going on. The six lion cubs watched silently too. Shadow narrowed his eyes before standing up.

"First of all, I'm a jaguar from another continent. And second, words won't be enough to get us out of here."

"He's right. No fighting, guys," Lil' Cubby said. Screensaver sniffed Shadow.

"Hey, you smell familiar," he thought for a while. "Have you guys heard about the Wild Kratts?"

All the cubs looked at each other. "YOU KNOW THEM?!" they exclaimed.

"Well, there's something we have in common," Spot-Swat said. "So, if we all know the Wild Kratts, we all received names from Martin, right?"

"Well, we were named by the girls and the other boy from the team. Roll call, guys. Lil' Cubby."

"El Cutisimo."

"Screensaver."

"Cat Burglar."

"Martin."

"Chris."

"Wow," Spot-Swat commented. Two of the cubs named after the Kratt Brothers? How did THAT happen? "Okay then. I'm Spot-Swat."

"Shadow," the jaguar said.

"Pouncemore, and my little sis doesn't have a name yet," The caracal brother said.

"Bummer. Well, now that we are all introduced, we might as well work together to get out of here." Every wildcat nodded. Then Cat Burglar had an idea for something other than escape.

"Hey, since we're going to be a team, why don't we give ourselves a team name like the Wild Kratts do?" he asked. They all looked at him.

"I like that idea," Pouncemore commented.

"Me too," his unnamed sister agreed.

"Okay then, what should we be?" Shadow asked.

"Hmm... well, we were named by the Wild Kratts, and we're all non-domestic felines, so... how about "Wild Catts"?" Spot-Swat suggested. Everyone thought about it.

"I like it!" Martin exclaimed.

"Me too!" Chris said.

"It's a perfect name!" the Caracal Siblings commented. Shadow smiled.

"Well then, Wild Catts it is," the jaguar concluded.

"Hey! Quiet you! Trying to work around here!" Gourmand kicked and punched their cages.

They all growled at him. The villain went back to cooking. The cheetah examined the room. An idea came.

"Shadow, what are your spots for?" he whispered to the rare jaguar.

"Blending into the darkness of the dense rain forest," he told him. "Why?"

"Try using your camouflage here."

* * *

Meanwhile, the Wild Kratts searched for more clues of the disappearing cubs.

"So, you were here hunting," Chris analyzed the place, while questioning Blur, "then what happened?"

"I just came back to the spot I told my cub to stay and observe, and he was gone," the mother cheetah said. "All that was left was this." She pointed to a piece of paper that she had under her paw. Chris picked it up and examined it.

"Cheetah Bites? Jaguar Pot Roast? Cara-Kabobs? Lion-Burgers? Gourmand is going to turn the world's most endangered wildcats into a buffet of feline meat!"

"Oh, no! My Spot-Swat!" Blur gasped.

"Guys! I know now what Gourmand's planning! I'm coming back with Blur!" Chris warned.

* * *

Gourmand hummed to himself as he went over to the cage with Shadow. But when he peeked in, it appeared like nothing was there. "What? Where did it go?" He opened the cage, only to be tackled back by a blur of black. Swiftly, Shadow managed to unlock Spot-Swat's cage and the lion cubs' too. As the six pounced on Gourmand, Spot-Swat freed Pouncemore and his sister.

"Quick! Everyone out the door!" the cheetah said and they all sprinted to the far side of the room. The chef got up and growled.

"I'll make sure to cook the black kitty first." With that, he followed them.

Spot-Swat growled. "I'll handle him! Let's just say I have some things to discuss with him," he said, while the others ran to the door.

Gourmand and the cheetah faced each other.

Shadow and the other cubs tried opening the door. "We need something to open this thing."

"Or a way to break it," Lil' Cubby said.

"Wait, I have an idea!" Screensaver said. "Pouncemore! Give me a lift!" He said, showing his claws. "I'll slice this thing!"

"This door seems pretty thick, but okay," the caracal complied. Getting on top, the lion cub slashed his claws against the wood, leaving huge gashes in it. The slicing expertise of the lion kids continued his slashing motions. Meanwhile with Spot-Swat, the two glared at each other. The cheetah teen still remembered when Gourmand captured him and the Wild Kratts had to rescue him. Now it was payback time.

"You little kitties think you're so smart," the chef growled. "But I'll show who is "top cat" here!" He charged at the young "leader". Spot-Swat only gave a cocky smirk and went into a sprint under his legs. This made Gourmand trip over him and fall to the floor. The teenage speedster hopped on him like a trampoline and reached the others, who were already in the next room. The door was completely hacked up, but there was a hole wide enough for all of them to fit through.

"Spot-Swat, hurry!" he heard Shadow call from the other side. Quickly, the cheetah teen crawled through and was greeted by the others.

"You all right?" El Cutisimo asked.

"Oh yeah, he didn't see me coming." Spot-Swat said, breathing hard. "Phew...running is exhausting for cheetahs. Just give me a few seconds."

"Get back here, you meddling felines!" they heard Gourmand shout. Spot-Swat luckily recovered his breath in time.

"Run!" All ten wildcats ran to the open entrance of the plane.

* * *

The Tortuga crew prepared itself to rescue the cubs from Gourmand, without knowing how they were doing.

"That fat jerk! How dare he cat-nap our friends?!" Koki commented, as she comforted Hangtime, who was worried sick about her little ones.

"There is no way we're gonna let Gourmand cook any of our wildcat cubs!" Chris proclaimed. "*giggle* We still call them cubs, even though they've grown up..." He though for a moment. Checking the Wild Kratts Diary, he analyzed previous pictures from the team's adventures.

"And boy, how fast they grew up..." He gave a weak smile. Blur and the other mothers agreed, nodding with their heads. Normally, they would compete for their food, but for now, their sons were more important.

Chris called Martin, who was scanning the skies already. "Martin, any sign of Gourmand?"

"Not yet," the blonde in his Peregrine falcon suit said. "He's really good at hiding his plane, unlike everything else."

"Call us when you find anything!"

"Got it!"

* * *

On another part of the Savannah, Pouncemore peeped out of the abandoned den the Wild Catts had found before going back inside. Currently, the cubs/kittens were sharing their stories of when they met the Wild Kratts. They were right now in the middle of the Caracal Twins', being told by the unnamed sister.

"And they jumped out of the weird bird in suits designed after us," she told them. "They grabbed the thing mom brought back and tried to leave. My brother was right behind them when an owl snatched him off the ground! I didn't dare to go out there, so I waited. Then mom came home and I told her what happened. Shortly after, the Kratt Brothers and mom come back with Pouncemore. After that, they left."

"So you two nearly had the bros as cat food," Spot-Swat mused.

"What? They were in a robot that looked like what we eat," Pouncemore pointed out. They heard a stomach growl. It came from Lil' Cubby.

"Speaking of eat, we didn't get to dig into that zebra dad caught," he admitted.

"I didn't have lunch either," Shadow said.

"Or us," said the Caracal Twins.

"Well, looks like we have some hunting to do," the cheetah spoke.

"Okay, so what do you guys eat around here?" Shadow asked.

"Usually gazelles," Spot-Swat said.

"Zebras!" the lion cubs said.

"Guinea fowls!" the caracals exclaimed.

"Never saw any of those before," Shadow said.

"Of course not, jungle cat. You said yourself that you're not from Africa," the cheetah pointed out. If cats could blush, the black jaguar would be red in the face as he smiled nervously.

"Oh, yeah."

"Hey, I have an idea," the caracal sister said. "Why not have a prey buffet?"

"'Prey buffet'?" they all asked, confused.

"Yeah. With gazelles, zebras and guinea fowls. Sorry we don't have what you eat, Shadow."

"Don't worry about it. We jaguars eat almost any creature, even crocodiles," he informed.

"Crocodiles?!" the other nine claimed in shock.

"So you know what those are. Okay, so that's another prey for the buffet."

"You eat crocodiles?" Spot-Swat asked incredulously.

"On occasion. They really taste good, although they're tough to get." After a little silence, everyone stood up.

"So we all know what we're bringing for lunch, right?" the apparent leader asked. Everyone nodded. "All right then, Wild Catts. Just to be sure, be on the lookout for that fat human. He can be anywhere. And for more safety, come back to this den when you have collected your prey." Another simultaneous nod. "Then let the hunt begin!" One by one, the Wild Catts went off to search for their prey.

* * *

*BG music: Mika - We Are Young*

Each of the cubs searched for their food.

Shadow looked for some crocodiles, but he didn't count on the croc mom coming.

Spot-Swat, way fastier than when he was a cub, ran after a gazelle, but unfortunately missed.

Pouncemore and his sister hunted guineafowls, and since they were in two, both got their preys quickly.

The six lion cubs searched for zebras, but they all got confused by their camouflage. It was hard hunting without their parents.

* * *

After what seemed like hours, each member of the Wild Catts returned, exhausted. The Caracal Twins were the only ones that returned with food.

"Well, all we have are guinea fowls, but I guess it's okay for now," Spot-Swat said. "Nice job, Pouncemore and you too, girl."

The female caracal sighed. "I really wish I had a name..." She jumped to take a look around and gasped. "Uh-oh. Here comes Mr. Fatty!" She said, seeing Gourmand approaching.

* * *

"We're on our way, guys!" Martin and Chris said, preparing to find the cubs.

Chris was in his Cheetah suit, searching the grasslands. Martin was high up above in his Falcon suit again. The African wildcat parents went in separate directions to cover more ground. Around the felines' necks were special collars that are used as communicators in case they find the cubs.

"No one here," the brunette said.

"Nothing I can see besides grass and herbivores," Martin added. "And a crocodile. Wait! That's Crocodilla! And she seems... agitated. Going in. Might be a clue." He went into a stoop and pulled up before he could crush into the ground. "Woah. There's a scratch on your face. How did that happen?"

"Some black leopard or whatever it was tried to get a bite out of me," the croc replied, obviously aggravated.

"A black leopard? There's only one creature that might be confused with a leopard and is black: Shadow the Black Jaguar! Which direction did he flee in?"

"I never stopped looking in that direction." Martin followed her long of sight. Indeed, there were some cat tracks in the dirt.

"Thanks Crocodilla. Rest that scratch." He took off again and called the others. "P-Falcon to Big Cats, P-Falcon to Big Cats. I got a lead. Follow me."

"Coming!" all five responded.

* * *

The Wild Catts hid inside the den. Luckily, it was small enough for Gourmand not to see. "Where are you?!" he shouted angrily. "You're going to regret ever picking a fight with me!" Meanwhile, Shadow and Screensaver watched by the entrance while everyone else shared the birds. They of course left plenty for their two friends.

"Now that we're full, we got to make a plan to take him down," Chris said.

"I know Chris," Spot-Swat replied. "But we can't just rush out there and just hope he's too slow." The teenage cheetah's eyes widening before narrowing as he smirked. "Or is he?"

* * *

Gourmand looked around. The cheetah chirped, calling his attention, then started running. Seeing the spotted cat, the chef ran in his direction, but soon he was tackled from behind by the Caracal Twins. The lion cubs started biting his clothes, being helped by Shadow.

Just by that moment, the Wild Kratts arrived. They got surprised about what they saw: all ten missing cubs sitting on top of the chef. The little cubs defeated Gourmand by themselves?

"Gah! Have your stupid cats! I'm outta here." Gourmand stood up angrily while the cats jump off. Shadow growled at him, scaring the chef back to his plane.

"Wow. That was AWESOME!" Chris stated. "It is unusual for different species of wildcats becoming friends in a competitive place like the Savannah, but you guys just broke the law and joined forces."

"I'm impressed! And really proud of you!" Martin said, opening his arms for the cubs to tackle him. At that moment, Pouncemore's sister whispered something on his ear.

"Oh, yeah...haven't named you yet..." Martin said.

"You should have seen her, Martin. My little sis is a great jumper just like mom." Pouncemore said.

"Jumper!" Martin concluded. "It's perfect! Pouncemore and Jumper."

Jumper licked his face, happy with her new name.

* * *

Later, in the Central American forest, Shadow was left again in the forest. "Bye, Shadow!" Mina waved, as the Tortuga lift off.

"Now _that_ was an interesting story," Martin said, writing in the Wild Kratts Diary about their day. "And the Wild Catts... *giggle*... sorry, can't say that with a straight face... ahem, they reminds me of... well, us."

All the crew got confused.

"Look at all of us. People from different places, with different interests, joining forces for the same mission," Martin reflected.

Everyone smiled at that statement. Then one by one, they united hands and wings in a circle.

"Saving the planet with Creature Power!" they exclaimed together, throwing their hands into the air.


End file.
